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Samus Aran
Skills Physical and Mental Abilities: Samus underwent genetic enhancement as part of her training with the Chozo warrior caste, and as a result has certain abilities gained from that which will be described here. Physically, she is taller and more muscled than a normal human female would be, though not overly so. Her muscles are hyper-dense, and allow her to bench-press something in the region of 670lbs as a maximum, as well as run at speeds of 26 mph for distances of around 600 metres at a time. Her stamina levels are impressive, as shown by the example previously, as is her resistance to pain or poison – though not able to shrug it off, she can at least ignore it for very short periods of time if the injury or toxin is a minor one. Her lung capacity is also somewhat greater than that of an ordinary human, allowing her to hold a breath in for up to nine minutes at a time. This lung capacity is actually somewhat necessary, in order to provide enough oxygen for her muscles to work at peak efficiency. As a professional soldier, mercenary and bounty hunter, Samus has a fairly excellent grasp of battlefield tactics, though her knowledge of this is more suited to, say, fighting a cunning enemy than it is for any kind of command role. She is also an explorer of some note, and knows quite about about field and bushcraft, as well as battlefield triage and, more esoterically, puzzle solving; many of the ruins and planets she has found herself on guarded their secrets carefully indeed, after all, and she had to think carefully in order to solve the problem of uncovering them. Varia Suit: Most of Samus' skill-set, however, comes from her advanced and unique powered armour. The Varia Suit, designed and constructed by master Chozo artificers for her human frame, contains life-support systems, the better to monitor the state of it's wearer and keep them alive. It enhances her strength and speed slightly, as well as allowing her to make larger jumps than should be possible due to thrusters built into the suit's feet and back. There is also a HUD system built into the visor of the helmet. This HUD details the ammo for her missile launcher, the class of weapon she is using – provided she has more than one class available to her – and her suit's current shield status. It also comes with a virtual crosshair scope which links with both the aim of her gun and the direction her eyes are looking, so as to better frame the target for her. Her helmet's visor has the ability to scan enemies and locate potential weak points; it also catalogues said enemy in it's memory banks, in order to recall the information when it is needed again in the heat of battle. The helmet can store up to 7000GB of data in this regard, and is best regarded as a sort of virtual encyclopedia on every enemy or creature Samus has ever encountered. As mentioned briefly, in addition to tough alloy armour plating, the suit also has a weak force field built into it, which functions to absorb the momentum of attacks levelled against her. It's power goes down as it absorbs more energy, and if it is overloaded it will leave her in a position of vulnerability, wherein only her armour will protect her. With the shield on, she can withstand attacks of superhuman strength – up to a point – and any kind of firepower up to and including armour-piercing machine gun rounds or light explosions. Without it, armour-piercing rounds will affect her, as will especially large shrapnel. This combination of extensive armour and energy plating also makes the suit an excellent extreme-weather survival aid, and Samus can safely operate in temperatures of both powerful heat and cold without significant impairment, though extremes will override this feature of the suit and cause it damage. In terms of offensive weaponry, the suit comes with an arm-mounted multifunctional gun, which at this point in time comes with three distinct firing modes. It can fire shots of charged energy, equivalent in strength to a large machine-gun in it's Power Beam mode. In it's Charge Beam capacity, the gun can 'charge up' a significant amount of energy before releasing it in a devastating anti-vehicle shot. It is also capable, as alluded to earlier, of firing missiles, though as replacement missiles are seemingly impossible to come by here, Samus is limited to only twenty-two of these now, having used some during her time in Pandora. Finally, and most oddly, the Varia Suit can convert the greater part of Samus' mass to energy and transform into a spherical shape, known as the morph ball. This is used primarily as an exploration tool, as it allows her to explore otherwise unreachable areas, and in this form her shields and armour are significantly less effective, making it a rather poor offensive tactic to enter such a form whilst in battle. Personality Samus has spent most of her life as a soldier in one form or another, and has the battlefield experience most military veterans can only wish for. She is calm, reasoned and cool under pressure; her main priority, she knows full well, is to make sure she survives long enough to come out the victor in any battlefield exchange, and you don't usually survive by panicking. It is certainly true of her that she is very brave, almost fearless, when it comes to dangerous or otherwise risky situations, as her combat record shows. The numbers of or the size of the enemy doesn't matter to her; she'll complete the mission if she is at all able, and only if a situation is truly unworkable will she consider retreat. Naturally, for a woman so well equipped, this happens rarely, and so it is probably fair to say that Samus is confident in her abilities as a soldier, though she's faced terrifying odds often enough to know that she isn't invincible, and thus avoids accusations of arrogance. Due to her repeated battlefield experiences, as well as the traumatic end to her time on K-2L, Samus suffers from a milder form of post-traumatic stress disorder. If she had still been serving with the Galactic Federation, she would have been taken off duty for rest and recuperation. As it is, she has learned to cope somewhat with the persistent nightmares that break up her sleep, and often prefers not to talk about the problem unless it's with a close friend or confidant. It is not so severe that it affects her balance in battle, though on very rare occasions the stress and noise can drive her into what amounts to a frenzied state, a less extreme cousin to the berserker rage that the ancient Viking warriors were supposed to enter. When interacting with others, Samus is fairly polite and kind, though a little blunt and businesslike on occasion. Given her former roving lifestyle, hunting down the Space Pirates wherever she could it's understandable that she does not follow the strict rules of societal etiquette, though to some she can come off as a little rough and uncultured as a result. However, to her friends she is unflinchingly loyal, willing to go the extra mile for them if she can, and she is a solid and gregarious companion when in the mood for it, happily sharing a joke and a drink or two with whoever she decides to spend her time with. She is also fond of flowers and plants, oddly, and likes to document new specimens that she comes across. She's not exactly an expert horticulturist, but she knows what she likes! Appearance Outside her armour, Samus stands around 6ft tall, her unusual height a result of her genetic enhancements. She is blessed with a strong, athletic frame, and her body is toned and fit in appearance, like that of a gymnast or female martial artist, with her musculature clearly well-used yet not oversized or ugly. She is Caucasian, and her skin tone is not particularly light nor particularly dark in terms of tanning, the fact that it has any skin tone at all given the amount of time she used to spend in her suit a testament to how much more peaceful life in Pandora is for her. Her hair is a golden blonde, and since coming to Pandora has grown down to the point where it now just reaches over her shoulders, though it used to be shorter. Her eyes are a vivid emerald green, a genetic by-product of the people of K-2L, and her face is serene, but not emotionless, when it comes to expressing herself. It is most often fixed in a calm, friendly smile, though wry amusement and sudden focus are also not uncommon. Inside her armour, Samus stands at 6ft 3in tall, and is easily recognisable. The armour is a dull orange and gold in colour, with some red segments and bright green areas where power conduits run close to the surface. Her face is semi-visible through the visor of the suit, which is also a vivid green in colour, and angular in design. Her armour is designed to be comfortable to wear, and so sticks fairly closely to her actual profile, with the exception of the huge, spheroid shoulder-pads; these are the storage tanks for her suit's power supply, and so are much larger than they would otherwise be in order to contain the advanced generators and energy storage systems the Chozo built into them. Relationships Spencer Reid - Her housemate in Pandora, and a close friend. He also acts as something of a confidant and casual therapist, and Samus is very fond of him. Riza Hawkeye - Her superior officer in the Pandora Royal Army, and the officer who is assigned to her missions most often. She is also a friend outside of work. Hiccup Haddock - A young man who Samus finds engaging, and who has joined her on several adventures along with Spencer. She likes his intellectual nature, and thinks of him almost like a little brother. History Samus was born on the human colony world of K-2L, to Virginia and Rodney Aran, miners on the planet's Alforaltite mining facility. There, she was brought into contact with a birdlike race of beings called the Chozo for the first time, some of whom she befriended. One particular individual, nicknamed 'Old Bird' by the young Samus, took kindly to the human family and their adventurous daughter, and for a few months out of every year, would teach her a little something about the cosmos they lived in and shared together. It was a friendship that, though thought of as cute by her parents and amusing by the other colonists, would prove to be very fortuitous indeed, for in the dark days to come, Old Bird would have a great part to play in the way the girl came to view the universe. Samus lived happily with her parents on K-2L until she was three, when a race, nicknamed "Space Pirates" by the colonists, attacked it Their attack was vicious and merciless, resulting in the burning of most of the colonised area. Tragically, Samus' family was killed in the struggle, her father dying along with the other defenders of the colony in the initial battle and her mother dying to protect her daughter from the attack of a Pirate general, known simply as Ridley to the other Pirates.The Chozo, who had returned once again intending to trade with the humans, found only devastation left there. Devastation, and a small, orphaned girl, eyes wide with shock over the things she had witnessed. Taking pity on the child, they took her in and raised her as one of their own, giving her the best education they could. At her request, and with the blessing of the now-ancient Old Bird, the Chozo took the unusual step of inducting her into their warrior class, a thing almost unheard of before this incident. Infusing her with Chozo artificial DNA in order to facilitate her survival on their home planet of Zebes, they intended to fully help the woman Samus had become forge her own destiny. This infusion had the effect of enhancing her strength, endurance and speed to significantly above-average levels. Crafting her a unique suit of armour, they sent Samus on her way with their blessings, and hoped one day for her safe return. Samus took to hunting the Space Pirates through the galaxy, sometimes as a freelance gun-for-hire and sometimes as part of the Galactic Federation's extensive military and relief effort. She soon came to know her chosen foe very well indeed, considering the amount of times she battled with the merciless raiders and their general Ridley over the years. One notable battle took place on Zebes many years after she had left it to hunt her hated opponents, where the Space Pirates had begun to study the life-forms known as Metroids after a successful invasion of that planet. They had been able to engage, defeat and wipe out the native Chozo with the aid of a mechanical life-form known only as Mother Brain, a former Chozo organic defence computer that had gone rogue and joined the forces of the Pirates. Fighting her way to the planet's surface and landing behind enemy lines, Samus began wrecking the Space Pirate operations from within, killing sentries and attacking wayward patrols, but always making her way to the centre of their operations. Eventually, she was able to defeat them and destroy Mother Brain, but the planet itself was lost. Hunting the pirates down, she gained revenge for her former home almost four years later; on Tallon IV, a remote outpost of the old Chozo empire that had long since been abandoned, she was able to defeat a Pirate attempt to harness the mutagenic powers of a substance called Phazon, a highly unstable semi-liquid that drastically affected everything it touched. The Pirates had observed it's effects on the local fauna, and applied it to their own troopers; Samus overcame them just the same, eventually defeating them as she had defeated them on Zebes. This was not without cost, however; in the temple the Pirates had used as a base of operations, she encountered a life-form almost purely comprised of Phazon, a being the ancient Chozo had recorded as being a subspecies of the Metroids that populated Zebes and the source of all the corruption. This monstrosity was Metroid Prime, and it nearly killed her; though badly wounded and in danger of being exposed to the mutagen herself, she was able to overcome it in the end with a well-placed missile shot. Unfortunately, the creature's apparent demise set off a self-destruct device intended to prevent Metroid Prime escaping it's prison and contaminating the rest of the planet with Phazon, giving Samus a mere ten minutes to escape the place before it was disintegrated. It was on her way out, with only twenty seconds to spare, that the tentacles came, and Samus was dragged to Pandora... Pandora History